Life Happens

I know I always come back and PROMISE I will be up and blogging again. I decided this time...no promises! We have been busy and well...times have been hard but things will eventually slow down...I suppose anyway. My cuz and one of my best friends Traci and a friend of mine that recently started a blog Holly...made me want to get back into blogging again. I had started using "My Space" last year...but not really doing alot of blogging. That took up alot of my time but I am kind of over it. I will keep up with alot of people there and check in occasionally but not as often as I had before. All in all ... i miss my blogging time here. I miss my blog friends!!

I am again going to copy something from Traci...I am just going to list what all has happened to me since...well November. I can elaborate on more if you like and I am sure I will eventually but for now I am just playing catch up!

• Thanksgiving - my whole family on my dad's side came to visit and all of us for the most part spent the whole week at my grandmothers. We decided to make this a new tradition. It was so nice...I saw people I haven't seen in years...most importantly my dad! It was so nice...we have a good relationship (in my opinion) it is like we can just pick up where we left off and there is not real akwardness...I was a daddy's girl for sure! :-)
• Christmas - this was kind of a blur to me! We have so much family that it is hard to keep up!! WHEW! All in all it went very well!!
• Baylee had her whole cheerleading team over to the house for a slumber party and they had a blast! Those girls crack me up!
• I got rear-ended on the way to work...the next week my husband got rear-ended on the way to work!
• My husbands grandfather (he was very close to him) got very sick after Christmas and on March 1st went to Heaven.
• A few weeks after this my husband's brother was in a 4-wheeler accident and remains in the hospital today. He is much better than he was but it will take lots of therapy to get back to normal.
• My husbands grandmother (that was married to the grandfather that passed away) is now in the hospital fighting cancer.
• I learned how to say "no more" and walk away.
• I learned that I am stronger than I thought I was.
• I learned you can be nice to someone without them taking away your sense of self worth.
• My washing machine broke.
• My fuel pump went out but now it is fixed! Yeah!
• I am coaching Baylee's softball team and loving it!
• She decided she hates gymnastics and never wants to go back...fine by me.
• Side note to above...I usually don't let her quit things but I didn't feel she was learning anything especially considering what we were paying...plus she really did cry everytime I took her because she hated it...even though she misses her friends that go there.
• I am on the planning committe for my 10 year reunion - I am so excited to see everyone!!
• This is the sad part...my hubby and my best friends hubby will both be deployed this year. We don't know exactly when they will leave but sometime between now and the end of summer...keep them in your thoughts and prayers!!!

So that is all for now...well I am sure there is more but that is all I have time for anyway. I will try to keep update more...but no promises!! Talk to you soon!!

1/4 cup walnuts - 184
yogurt -90
cheese stick - 60
1/8 cup dried cherries - 70

7 No brainers to losing weight....

Listed below are 7 things guaranteed to help you lose weight. They are things we have heard before, but I think it's good to remind ourselves of how easy losing weight can actually be. I printed this off and taped it on my kitchen cabinet. Why not the fridge? Because it would get lost among the calendar, appt cards and Brayden art. On the cabinet, it's sure to stand out every day. I got these tips from http://10way.blogspot.com/. They have other great life changing tips too.

1. Drink Ice cold water - Okay I know you already know this and you probably already know ice cold water makes your body burn fat to heat the ice cold water back up to body temp, but I keep saying drink water because… A lot of people still don’t drink enough water. If you want to lose weight fast… Stop wasting your money on ugly fat-weight gainers like coffee, soda, and juices and pick up a FREE magical weight loss drink called water

2. Eat Peppered beef jerky - I can’t explain any science behind this one, but every time I eat peppered beef jerky I seem to shred a little fat and I think this is due to the spices they put in the beef jerky and some studies show that spicy foods increase your metabolism and there’s also enough protein in beef jerky to help curb your appetite

3. Kill your cravings - Eating lots of protein (nuts, jerky, fish, and chicken) raw veggies and water will kill your appetite. I promise you the sooner you get used to eating raw veggies you will stop craving for all the junk foods that made you fat in the first place.

4. Drink green tea - Hate drinking water all the time? Then sip on some green tea to increase your metabolism to burn more fat.

5. Limit carbs - This is really an emergency weight loss trick. If you stop eating carbs (or limit your carbs) you can lose 5 lbs or more real quick by burning up all the stored carbs in your body. You have about 1 pound of carbs stored in your body and each pound stored in your body has 3-4 lbs of water attached to it. So if you burn up the stored carbs in your body… The 5 lbs of water will burn up with it

6. Do something in the morning – Wake up and break a sweat for 30min in the morning. I know you hate to exercise but if you do it first thing in the morning guess what… Your body will ONLY BURN FAT because since you haven’t eaten anything yet… Your body has no choice but to feed off the stored FAT in your body for energy.

7. Walk for 10 minutes after you eat – Your body burns calories to digest the food you eat and if you walk for 10 minutes after you eat you will increase the amount of calories you burn during digestion and get his… If you eat three times a day you will easily get the 30 minutes of activity you need to lose weight (3 meals x 10 minute walks after each meal).

30 Day Goal

Every year, Bobby and myself join about 30 other people and go on a 2 day canoe/camping trip. Well, we are a lttile more than 30 days away from the event and I'm light years away from my desired weight. I've done really good this week, but I admit I could have done better. I'm going back to counting calories. It's really the only thing that has truly given me quick results. My goal is to lose 15 lbs by March 30th. Ok, so I know that's a little agressive... but I know I can do it if I just put everything I have into it. I weighed in at a whopping 231 this morning. I've got to, got to, got to, got to do this!!! I'll be posting my intake again as well. So wish me luck....here I go again.

Ok, so I did great last week!! I stayed on plan, I worked out 3 nights of the 5 and then the weekend happened! WHY... can't I stay on plan on the weekend? The answer is that I still have crap in my house. I keep saying I'm going to clean out the pantry and get rid of everything that has enriched flour, sugar equalling more than 4g per serving, or any trans fat. Basically that means I need to completely empty it. I just can't bear to throw it all away. I would donate it to a food bank, but most of it has been opened. Well, I've decided that I'm just going to have to suck it up and get rid of it all. At least before next weekend. If I only have healthy stuff, then I'll only eat healthy stuff. I think I will even have to get rid of my flour. Otherwise I'm very tempted to bake. I bake cookies almost every weekend and this weekend was no exception. At least I had the sense to send the leftovers with Bobby this morning. I actually weighed last Wednesday and it said 227, well after this weekend it was back up to 229 this morning. It kills be to say 229 when I know just 3 months ago I was 13 lbs lighter. It makes me nauseous!

Back on the wagon today...

Wednesday 12.06.2006 - Traci

B - LS Oatmeal - 110
B - Coffee w/ creamer and S&L - 40
S - All Bran Bar - 120
L - Fuddruckers Veggie Burger - 412 (used Burger Kings's version to get calories)
L - Coleslaw - 190
S - 6 Ritz - 96
S - 8 Cheese Cubes - 80
D - Wendy's small chili - 220
D - Wendy's 5 pc nugget - 230
S - SF Jello - 10

C - 1508
W - 36
E - 30m on the treadmill

Wednesday Weigh-In

I thought you and the Good Dr. were done, over, kaput?? Remember that tar filled jar??? Yuck! I guess that's easy for me to say because I've never been a big fan of real soda, just diet. Do you like Diet DP?? That's my fave!! Well, just get back on the horse and ride on. Hope you are doing better today. I understand the eating out at lunch. In fact I went with some ladies from work today, but while they ate their burgers and fries, I had a veggie burger on whole wheat with a side of cole slaw. Haven't figured the C's yet, but I'm guessing it's substantially lower than that what they had. It's all about choices. We just have to be strong enough to make the right ones.

I Gave In! :-(

B – 10 animal crackers - 130; Crystal Light On The Go - 10
L – Pulled pork sandwich – 464; Fries – 340; 16 oz Sweet Tea - 120
D - Spaghetti Supper! - 800; I broke down and had a Dr Pepper 150
2014 Calories
32 ounces water
0 Exercise

I started out STRONG yesterday morning. At lunch we went and visited a co-worker (the one that had the brain surgery) and picked up lunch to take it to her. I had already told the lady that I rode with first thing that morning that I was ONLY going to get the sandwhich. When I got there - before I even realized it - I had ordered fries and a tea, too! To my defense I probably did not really consume 340 calories on those fries because I only had 2 or 3 but I should not have even wasted my money on them!

At dinner I broke down and had a DP because I hate drinking water or milk with supper and I was too lazy to make tea!! Really there is no excuse. It was just laziness that forced me to drink that!!

So 2014 is just horrible and it could have been MUCH better. I didn't get all of my water in yesterday but I did get half which is good considering I drank none on most days before starting this!

Gotta work on that exercise!! I am proud of myself though because I almost didn't post for today because I didn't want to admit that I didnt' do so good BUT that wouldn't help me to lie about it or pretend it didn't happen - just like I have always done. I am telling you - THIS BLOG MAKES ME ACCOUNTABLE!

Well instead of coming up with excuses as to why I wasn't going to be honest about what I ate I decided this: It is harder for me cut the calories down at night right now because of Brian and Baylee. I know I really should eat most of my calories during the day and not save them for the night time but the night time is when I am having the biggest problem for now. So until I can get on top of the number of calories I eat a day I am going to have to eat fewer calories during the day (but still eat so I don't slow my metabolism) and save my calories for night time. Then as I get to where I am close to my set number of calories a day I will then slowly start eating more during the day and fewer at night!

Quote:

"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." –Conrad Hilton

I won!! I won!!

I won the battle against the Krispy Kremes today!! Yea!!!

B - Hot Chocolate - 272
S - 8 Cheese Cubes - 110
S - 3 Ritz - 48
L - Salad with Grilled Chicken & Viniagrette - 240
L - 5 Low Fat Club Crackers - 70
S - 2 Graham Crackers - 135
D - Sonic Jr Burger - 320
D - Diet Sonic Sunrise - 90
S - 1 PB& J Sandwich, all ingredients measured - 260

C - 1545 (just a tad over, I think I'm overestimating on the Sonic Sunrise and the salad so I'm probably really ok.)
W - 64oz
E - 20m weights, 20m on treadmill

Simple changes I could have made to save calories: Could have used LF graham crackers (didn't have any though) and could have used 1 less T of PB and used Sugar Free Jelly (didn't have any). Those changes would have saved me 125 calories. Of course skipping the hot chocolate would have made a huge difference too.

BTW - I'm on board for the challenge and weighing in on Wednesday. I guess tomorrow will be our first "offical weigh in".

Quote of the day:

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man,

but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. - Mark Twain

The Challenge - 8%

I propose a challenge. I know we are setting small goals for now but earlier in the year when I actually lost weight was because I was in the midst of a competition. Here is my challenge:

Lose 8% of our body weight in 3 months. That will be around 21 pounds for me and 18 pounds for you. That gives us 12 weeks to lose that weight. It gives us something to shoot for. It will be hard but I feel it is realistic. A healthy amount of weight to lose is 2lbs a week and in a 12 week time period we both could do it even if we were below this number. Some weeks will be good and some will be bad.

I propose we go back to our weigh-in Wednesdays, also. March 1st can be our "final" weigh in for this 8% challenge. That is a good date because that is close to the beginning of spring and we can reassess our goals before summer. If we don't start now we WON'T feel much better about ourselves before summer!!

Are you up for it?

Divorcing the Good Doctor

*Bravo* On the visualization technique!! I will definitely be trying this one!!

My first idea out of my bag of tricks is going to be "Divorcing the Good Doctor - Dr. Pepper that is." Maybe I won't say forever - yet - I am just going to take baby steps. However, I am giving up sodas for this week to start with. Small goal but baby steps!! I always think those commercials that show what all the tar on a smokers lungs looks so disgusting. SO I will use your visualization technique to imagine if I drink a soda (because I tend to like the dark ones anyway) that it will look like that nasty tar stuff going through my body. Just the thought is G-R-O-S-S to me!

Maybe this will help....here is a jar of tar that is equal to one year of smoking....I know I don't smoke but I am picture this is what sodas do to the inside of my body!

=

Here is one for you....we are pretending this is fat cells on a cupcake.

=

"Life Will Not Go According to Plan, If You Do Not Have A Plan!"
The Plan.Success is not an accident. It begins with a well-conceived plan.
Action.Just do it!
Believe it.If you can dream it, you can achieve it.

Visualization Technique

Thanks for the star. Recognition feels good. You didn't do too bad either considering you didn't realize what I had written. You will do even better today though!!

This morning when I got to work I was faced with 2 boxes of Krispy Kremes (we've seen this battle before) and a container of homemade chocolate cupcakes. I turned my nose up in disgust and walked away. When I looked at them I visualized them covered in sticky, nasty, oozing yellow fat, nice thought I know - but it worked. Now the thought of them makes me want to gag. So now I just have to picture that every single time I walk into the kitchen today.

By the way, I stopped on the way to work and got a skinny hot chocolate with no whip cream. I figured that wasn't too bad, but according to Calorie King it still has 272 calories, only 88 calories less than the whole milk one. I was shocked. I guess it's the chocolate. So that will be my last one of those for a while. I guess I'll stick to my coffee with splenda.

Motivational thought for the day:

You are only as weak as you allow yourself to be. Don't allow it.

Tiff's Monday 12/04/06

Wow! You did great!!!!! This is for you!!!!!

This is your star for your first big step towards a new you!! I am proud of you girl!!! You did awesome! I definitely could have been better!! I should have read your post BEFORE I went to work - see we do help each other! I had read it I would have been more prepared and more motivated. I am going to plan 15 minutes of me time every morning to check on your post and update from the day before!

B - (Kinda not really a breakfast but ate this before I read your post!) Dr. Pepper - 150; 6 cheese straws 282

L - Sweet tea - 120; garden salad - 200

S - 3 chocolate covered pretzels - 150

D-Dr. Pepper 150; 4 tacos - 680 calories

1732 Calories with no water and no exercise! Yikes!

We have said our spills so it is time to get with it! I am motivated, dedicated and hard core! Lets go, lets go!! I am logging off of this computer and I am going to get myself ready for tomorrow - the first day of my new life!! :-)

Monday 12/05/06

B - Lower Sugar Oatmeal - 100
L - Salad with Chicken breast and viniagrette - 240
S - Yogurt - 100
S - Cheese cubes - 80
D - White beans with ham - 275 (guessing based on calorie king)
D - Cornbread Twist - 140
S - SF Jello - 10

Calories - 945
Water - 75oz
Exercise - 30 minutes on the treadmill

One down, a lifetime to go...

Amen

Your post was great. Exactly what I'm thinking and feeling. We can't go on like this. I've done really well today. I've actually probably not eaten enough, but what I've eaten has been healthy. I've already had 48 ounces of water and I brought my gym bag to work so that I can go on the way home.

How have you done today??

I'm not sure what we are doing for dinner. I need to start planning more. I end up going home and having to figure something out at the last minute. It's usually something quick and not to healthy. My goal is to plan each weeks dinner on that Sunday. That Dr. Oz book I was telling you about has some good soup recipes in it. I think I will start making a a batch on one each Sunday, so that I have something to eat on those nights that take out is the only option. I want to change Bobby and Brayden's eating habits too, but I need to get mine in line first. Once I get it down, I'll work harder at changing the way they eat too, at least at dinner time. I can post the recipes if you want me to.

Hope you are having a great day!

Preach On Sister!!

Wow Traci, your last post “1 Year Ago” got me teary eyed, too! You are so right! I weighed the other morning and I am 261 (4 pounds less than I thought I was a couple of days ago BUT 3 pounds heavier than I was when we started this thing a year ago!) The bad thing is – we BOTH lost weight but here we are again right back at it. Why are we programmed this way? Why do we get aggravated when we see people doing other things (drinking, smoking, gambling, etc.) when the truth of the matter is we are hurting ourselves just as much by eating. Like we always say though – it does through in the curve ball. EVERYONE has to have food for nutritional purposes. You just can’t quit eating like you can quit smoking, etc. We just need to figure out WHY we eat like we do. We need to start learning to “eat to live” and NOT “live to eat”. They way I figure it if we keep on like we are doing – even if it is gaining a few pounds a year I will be pushing 300lbs in the next 5 or 10 years and you will be in the 250 to 275 range. Is that what we want? NO! We don’t even want to be where we are so we just have to STOP NOW!!!

I came across this website that said these days what some calculators and charts consider to be “ideal weight” is not actually true and it is outdated information. I am not sure of your height but I did it based on 5 ft 5 inches.

Traci: 5’5” @ 224
Based on this information your ideal weight is 161
Medically Recommended: 114 to 150

Tiffany: 5’5” @ 261
Based on this information my ideal weight is 172
Medically Recommended: 114 to 150

If you take each of our weights and use the highest medically recommended weight (150) you are 74 pounds over and I am 111 pounds over. You are considered morbidly obese when you are at least 100 pounds over this weight. I am over by 11 pounds and you are only 26 pounds away. MORBIDLY obese. Just in case we have forgotten this is the definition of “morbid”:

mor·bid –adjective

1.suggesting an unhealthy mental state or attitude; unwholesomely gloomy, sensitive, extreme, etc.: a morbid interest in death.

2.affected by, caused by, causing, or characteristic of disease.

3.pertaining to diseased parts: morbid anatomy.

4.gruesome; grisly.

Did you get that? The ones that stood out the most to me were “unhealthy mental state or attitude” and “gruesome; grisly”. In every day life would we want someone to call us this? No. So why is it okay when it comes to our weight?

I remember one time when I was probably in junior high me and one of my friends went to a local water park with her parents. My friend and I were sitting around with some people from another school (that didn’t know my friend and her family) and my friends parents walked by and her dad was very overweight. One of the other girls made a comment “That is just wrong. They should let people like that in here.” My friend never said anything and neither did I but the hurt and embarrassment was written all over her face! I will never forget that. I don’t want my daughter to have to EVER deal with that. Most importantly I don’t want to have to deal with the side effects and diseases my weight has and will cause me! Why would I want to do that to myself??

We can do this and we will do this!! This will be a brand new day for sure! I know we haven’t stuck to our diets or even this blog like we should but just imagine if we didn’t have this blog at all…we might not even be having the reality check we are having now. We could hide the fact that we have tried so long…but with this blog we can’t. We need this and we need each other. We have said this a hundred times but I mean it this time….WE CAN do this!!!

1 Year Ago...

I realized this weekend, that we started this blog exactly one year ago. It was a very depressing realization. According to my first post, I should be enjoying my new skinny body by now. I should be way below the 180 mark and sitting here in my size 10's or less and writing about how great I feel. But I'm not...instead I'm sitting her in my snug size 18's feeling depressed. I'm sitting here thinking about how sad it is that as of today I'm actually 3 lbs more than my "official weigh in" (221) at this time last year. I feel like such a failure. Why can't I get a grip?? Why can't I just stop putting all the crap in my mouth. If I had cancer and they had pills that made it worse, would I be poppin them like candy? No, but that's exactly what I'm doing. My risk of heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer and most other medical conditions gets higher with every single unhealthy bite I take. I can't continue to do this....I can't. I DON'T want to be writing a year from now about how I didn't do it.... again. By then I want to have written the post that says "yea, we finally did it", we are healthy and we look fabulous". Tiff, I know you want this more than anything and so do I... girl it's time we really do it. It's time to take control of our lives not for our husbands or our kids... but for us. I'm crying as I write this because I hate it...I hate it for both of us. I'm sad for both of us. I, more than anyone truly know what you are going through and I know you feel the same emotions I feel when it comes to weight. I hate that we have to go through this, but at least we have each other. No matter what, I know that you are absolutely the one person that will understand and encourage me without judging me. I love you for that. Let's do this, let's really do it. I'm going to try my hardest to encourage you everyday, to motivate you and remind you about why we have to do this and I want you to do the same. I love you and I want us to do this...I want you to do this. We need to do this. We HAVE to do this.

Weekly Recap

Well I haven't been keeping track of my intake for the last couple of days but I can say they haven't been stellar - not horrible, but I could have done better. Tueday I did pretty good except for some M&M's. Then came Wedneday, I did good during the day, but I had a Taco Bell Taco Salad for dinner, with extra sour cream. Then Bobby left to get a milkshake and I had him stop at Sonic and get me an order of their new Cheesecake Bites. There were only 3, but I'm sure 3 pieces of fried cheescake took me off the charts for the evening. Oh and I had 2 handfuls of Crunch N Munch at work. Thursday wasn't good either ... I started off with 2 breakfast lean pockets (they are much smaller than regular, but still), 2 PB cookies , about 20 M&M's, I then had to go pick Brayden up from school because it was sleeting and snowing. I had a Swiss Cake Roll & an apple for lunch and then I made cookies. I ate 4 of those. We had breakfast for dinner which for me consisted of 1 biscuit loaded with homemade sausage gravy and about 3 eggs. I topped all that off with a big glass of chocolate mik. Oh and I had one last cookie before bedtime. So, that brings us to today....I'm at home again because of the weather. I've had a big bowl of Honey Smacks. The plan is to have soup for lunch and an apple for a snack and nothing else until dinner. Dinner will be Mushroom Alfredo Tortellini, but if I only eat one portion that's only 200 calories. So I'm putting the past few days behind me and starting again.


BTW, I didn't have electrolysis, I had laser removal done. I went for 3 sessions and should have gone for about 4 more. It lessened it, but it's not completely gone.

I Woke Up In The Morgue

I was surfing the television the other night and I came across a show called "I Woke up In The Morgue". Did anyone else get the privilege of seeing this show? I tell you what it was some scary stuff! These people had a condition called catalepsy. Basically, they would just pass out and have no signs of life but they could feel and hear everything that was going on around them. One lady got taken to a morgue THREE different times because they thought she was dead!!! I would FREAK out. This lady was completely conscious of where she was and what was going on and one day was out for THREE days closed in a dark room with dead bodies. It is amazing the kinds of conditions people can have that we don't even know about. I told my husband I wonder how many people were embalmed or buried alive because of this condition. This is SO scary to me! The thought of it! Yikes!!

Thursday Stats 11/30/06

Well I didn't eat so well today but I definitely went down LOTS of calories from the past couple of days (especially since I was home again today with Baylee!!) and I plan on keeping it up!! I need to go back and look at your old post about calories and do some research to decide what is a good amount of calories for me. I am still having a hard time with the water and exercise. One thing at a time though. Let me tackle this food demon first! I am REALLY trying to do it without any kind of pill!

Here are my stats:


2 pop tarts - 400 calories
Baked cheetos - 130 calories
Frozen pepporoni pizza 2 slices - 400
24 oz whole milk - 439
1 can dr. pepper - 150
Hamburger Helper - 175
1694 Calorie Total

Exercise - None but some house cleaning!! (Which is better than past days!!)
Water - 16 ounces